Corners and edges of a Killer
by DamnKittie
Summary: Cassidy gets always into trouble. Maybe she gots in all the trouble the world could offer to her. At the age of thirteen she meets a criminal that puts her up. Having lost everything she commits a momentous decision that catapults her in the front ranks of criminality. And immediatly everything changes as one person steps into her life, one that she had never expected. OXxKiller
1. Chapter 2 An argumnet with a shower

Tadaaaaaa. Chapter two is on its way. Again betaed by the famous motherloosegoose, who gets my deepest love for doing that, again.

I just changed the tenses from present to past, and changed also a few sentences that sounded so… not right in my ears.

**Corners and Edges of a Killer**

**Chapter 2**

"_What the hell was that?" _I questioned myself. My brows furrowed slightly as I stared after him. Koryuu did notice it, since my body language revealed more than my voice every single time. After all**,** the old snake had known me for a long,_ long_ time.

"So, no shift today?" I just waved the question aside. As I mentioned earlier, I had a big problem with lying. And so, I better did not even try. As somebody could have smelled that something was happening my smartphone "rang".

"BANG BANG" It tinted out of the nerv-wrecking little device that must had come directly from hell**;** at least it seemed like that. Who bought it for me? Alessio of course. Therefore,he could reach me anytime. The smartphone vibrated happily in my hip pocket. Fiddling clumsy at my buttom I tried to get the device out of the patent leather pants. That was exactly my problem: The fucking piece of mechanical shit sticked at the fabric.

"BANG BANG" it tinted again, like it tried to make fun of me, but the longer it rang the angrier it sounded. Could the device be impatient?

As finally "Feuer Frei"***** sounded out, I had managed to get the little frigging piece out and picked it up.

Oh, I knew exaktly whom it was that called. That was because of two reasons. The first: I was not the social type, therefore not much people could want to call me. The second: I had finished an important job, and for sure my boss wanted to know if everything went well and maybe there was another job he could give me**, **which would completely strike another nerve.

I just held the receiver at my ear without saying anything. Alessio was already used to that and so he came to the point, without wasting any time. _If he _didn´t already do_that all the time__**.**_ I found myself questioning such a thing, but listened to him.

"Have you done all I asked for?" MY answer was a plain nod until I realized that he couldn´t see me, and so I pushed a "yes" out in a curt manner. "Good!" I heard his satisfied voice retort.

There was a voice groaning in the background and I presently felt a heat rose in my cheeks. Immediatly the disguised face of killer appeared before my internal eye. Wretched shit …

That was the last thing I needed, to feel drawn to such a guy.

"Cassidy?" it said from my listener, and I winced as it became clear that I haven´t paid attention to what he had said.

"Yes". I just answered without any clue.

"Well …" Again, I heard a female groaning from the background and asked myself whether he had time to call me, or if he didn´t care who it was whom just lay with him. Probably it was the latter. "Well", he said again, and hung up. Letting the smartphone sink, I looked at it irritated. Koryuu catched my look and smiled.

"Let me guess? Your free evening has just been settled?" He laid his head on his palm and glanced at me. I nodded.

"Looks like that." Automatically I stepped to the table and wanted to collect my weapons, however, the hand of the blonde shot forwards quick as a flash and hindered me in doing so. Doubtfully I looked at his mask and could only assume that he looked back at me because the holes in eye level were directed towards me. If I had to admit, the corner of my eye began to twitch. With my left hand, I stroked my short, soft purple hair from my forehead and behind my ear. I clenched my right into a fist, and snapped after the wrist in which his one held on me, as fast as he did before with me. Nevertheless, before I could try to push his hand aside and to break the fingers of him, a voice held me back.

"These are our guests, Cass …" he hissed over to me and I rolled my eyes.

"Oh please … As if our guests expect any good behaviour from me," my hand slid back to my side as I didn´t want to let any quarrel start with Koryuu. Here, at least, I lived, but he could also kick me out any time. And then I had to deal again with Alessio. I shuddered at the thought.

"You can take your weapons when you make your leave, not earlier." A boiling sensation could be felt in my blood, and I briefly considered to ignore the hidden order, but I nodded, nevertheless, and Killer finally removed his strong and warm hand. Silently and miffed I turned around and disappeared from the room into the direction of the bathroom to wash finally away the feeling of brain mass and blood that was maybe sticking to me.

It was disgusting … they plagued my mind, sending me into a state of angered emotions. I couldn't even begin to understand what they were talking about in the living room.

"What´s with that behavior? Is she still in her puberty, or else?" Kid laughed as if he had torn an especially good joke, but also Killer allowed a short snorting to be heard. Koryuu declined.

"No, rather not. Ordinarily … she is not this shy..."

"Nevertheless, to Killer she was quite trusting," the zombie looking man added.

Koryuu shrugged his shoulders.

With interest, Killer picked up the Desert Eagle from the table and looked at it curiously. Cleverly**,** he let the gun clip snap out and turned it once, before he let it snap back and turned the weapon several times in his hand.

"Respectable work … Hand manufacturing?"

Weapons were his passion. His scythes were, for example, of often laid Damascus steel. The extremely cost-intensive manual labour of many months which had been all worth it. His blades cut through everything like a hot knife through butter. Even human bones posed no particular problem. On the way to this place he had sliced off two men of Alessio´s whom he left with deep cuts on the ground of the club. They would slowly bleed to death there, until the first employees came and perhaps discovered the men. Till then, so he was sure, none of them would be alive any more. He grinned under his mask and laid the weapon back on the table.

How simple it sometimes was to press out information from other living beings. And how pointless it sometimes was that the subjects defended themselves or at least tried to do it.

First, Killer had severed the foot tendons of both men, so that they could not flee. Only when he was sure that the both only could move on with the usage of their arms, he cut light but nevertheless exact wounds in their flesh. First the arms, then the legs. Finally he had rammed his blades in each abdominal cavity of the men.

He smiled while he thought of it, and sighed. It had gone too fast for him, however, Kid's order was an order he obeyed, and he had been quite clearly: „Procure the information, and cause some annoyance." Besides, Killer was rather the type of killer who released other pathetic people from their physical existence. One did not look like it but his boss, Eustass Kid, however, was underhand, underhand, and dangerously. And, nevertheless, he represented a very important setting, that was to say that the best source of information was still the human being. And with enough pain the information could be brought out of it quickly.

Instead of getting rid of his opponents fast and simply, his kind was much more subtle. And it was always the same. First he infiltrated the organisation about one of the high-ranking and trusting members. Besides, he had not had in view Cassidy, only supposed she would be Koryuus friend, partner, or however one could call this. Actually the organisation of Alessio Montalba was rather difficult to see through and it had needed fairly long time to categorize all members substantially and with the help of a complicated rank system to filter out the people who fulfilled several important points.

First the suitable person had to be close to the boss, secondly he had to trust them and thirdly he had to be annoyed or be furious, or in certain manner corruptibly or vulnerable.

Koryuus fury after the naming of a Vice which he did not know had been almost handy and thus he had climbed quick as a flash on the top of the list. This followed the establishment of contact which resembled more or less an attack and which should intimidate the person. Also this had went exactly according after plan. Now it was a matter of causing some confusion. Besides, Eustass kid chose the medium of the natural mistrust. Leave a few injured or dead men here and there, cause here and there some chaos, and swiftly the members of the own organisation are suspected. In the end, the whole group is in so much turmoil which makes it easily possible to destroy the boss and to take over everything.

Finally, the redhead turned to the owner of the flat he was in.

„We have a deal?" he asked while he reached for the wineglass and took a large gulp. The addressed drove through his chin-long black hair.

He laughed briefly and drily. „Of course we have a deal …"

That all came to no good end for him, and now where the trust in his boss was completely destroyed, he perceived the chance which came up to him. In the end, HE would be the one which triumphed. It would be HIM who stood over Alessios dying body and glare contemptuously down on him, as well as Alessio looked at him, in Koryuus eyes.

„What will your course of action be?" he asked, finally, and looked in the round. Killer leant back obviously relaxed. The biggest work was done, now only the conditions had to be cleared, and this lay not with him, but only with his boss. His thoughts wandered to the young woman whom he had touched just a few minutes ago. She was interesting. Women in the branch were rare, and he asked himself in which connection she was with the criminal organisation. Nevertheless, his thoughts were interrupted abruptly as he heard Kid answering on the question he heard.

„Just wait and see …" he dropped in the round and noted how irritated the betrayer looked at him. Kid smiled. „It is not like we had not already smuggled informants in, Koryuu ." He took another sip of his wine. „You or the others, somebody of you will deliver the required information … And then we strike."

The way how the redhead said it, made clear that there would be nothing where he could return to. And also it became clear to him that he would exchange Alessio, and for that he would enter in the crew of Eustass kid, or die.

He swallowed.

Slowly**,** I fumbled at my shirt, pulling it over my head with difficulty. My head whirred. As fast as the faint suggestive feeling came, it disappeared. To take off the trousers was less problematic, and thus I stood naked under the warm ray of the water which should help to wash away the noticeable and unnoticeable dirt of my body and my soul, a few seconds later. Well, at least with one point I succeeded with.

The foam ran over my body to my feet, only to wash around my ankles and to disappear swilling in the drain. Mauve foam bubblesstayed behind on my skin. It looked like a rare illness...

With the result more or less satisfied I put down the water. My skin was quite cold, but it was one of my habits to take a cold shower. One I did not want to put away. Mostly the cold shower was the only thing that made me really awake.

I felt more or less clean. More or less, because these miserable feelings of guilt could not be wiped off, unfortunately... My foot stepped on the edge of the shower cup, instead of just stepping out of it. I could only feel how my wet foot slipped off and I fell right forward out of the shower. In a slow motion the edge of the shower got closer to me, just as the toilet bowl. My knee crashed hard against the shower cup, and at the same moment my skull against the toilet. Presently I saw stars and a vague veil lay down about my consciousness.

„Karma … You are a wretched trollop!" I hissed quietly and pulled myself together. I groaned and reached for my forehead with the fingertips of my right hand. When I led them before my eyes once again, they were full of blood. I cursed the knowledge about the fact that head wounds inclined to bleed frigging and I probably would put the whole bathroom under blood.

Well, nevertheless, that would be something new, huh? Not to put a room under water but under blood... The prince of darkness was finally just one room ahead, so it fit perfect… Anyhow he already corresponded to the picture of the Prince of Darkness, and if one looked at his men in such a way, they could also have sailed on a ship directly above the Hades in our world. Absolutely conceivable.

"I will not have a concussion, will I?" went through my head as I had this absurd thoughts. For safety's sake I stopped first of all. The drops of remaining water ran like small fast-flowing stream over my body and were soaked up by the soft bath towel on which I stood. I paused a moment still, without moving, until a streamlet blood ran from my neck, wounded over my breast and finally down my thigh.

I leant my head forward and closed my eyes. Why did something like that just happened now? An order waited for me from which I did not have the slightest notion what exactly it might be. Magnificently … And today the karma still decided to punish me for the murder of this stranger. Besides, karma had to love me, nevertheless, actually I killed the bad guys. Or did it punish me for something else?

I pushed the thought aside, sighing again and positioned myself before the mirror to examine the wound. My reflexion scrutinised me critically.

A more than hand bale big spot adorned the left half of my face. I slightly touched it with two fingertips. Pain exploded in my sensory cells. It was almost in such a way as if every molecule of my body poured forth into a world from pure pain and pulled me further down in the abyss. Rather far on top of the left side a laceration was resplendent. It was not especially small as I ascertained angry. My body shook by the recent adrenalin push. At least this switched off my growling stomach.

With erratic hands**,** I fumbled a washcloth from the bathroom cabinet, made it wet and hit it against my wound, while I searched for some sore tape in the mirror cabinet to mend my wound scantily. I lacked the time and also the desire to go to a hospital, and even more the stimulus to inform Koryuu that I had slipped in a flight of pure silliness and bounced against a toilet bowl...

ARGH. I would like to tear my hair... With my luck I would be killed in broad daylight by a toilet which fall possibly from the sky.

My face contorted with pain as I wiped over the wound again, dropped the cloth in a flash, pressed the sore edges together and fasted two stripes of tape on it.

This had to be enough. My look met my reflection. Anyhow I looked pale. Well, paler than otherwise, in any case. While I embraced my body with a towel, I reached for another one for my hair. When I tried to dry them, I almost fell because of a dizziness that captured me.

_Stupid karma … Stupid concussion_. Well, I couldn´t do anything about it.

„oh shit …" I hissed angry and murmured something to myself. I had forgotten, nevertheless, to take things to change with me... And this meant? Yeah, exactly … I had to slouch along in my magnificent towel gear to MY room. Actually, no problem, but I had to go along the sitting room in addition. If I was able to do it, I would kick myself now. Clashing on the redhead and his little amusing friends once more was nothing thus I felt like wanting. And I also felt no inclination for stupid questions.

Being angry I threw the towel of off my hair and fumbled in the strands to cover my wound. At least Murphy had provided mercy with me and for that I got no violet. Who wanted to explain already to 7 men in his living room that he had NOT run against a door, or badly fallen, but banged against a toilet bowl? Exactly, it couldn´t be any more reliable …

Snorting I stepped out into the hall, looked around me in all directions and crept in the direction of the living room door. I drew a deep breath as I noticed that it was closed and darted on tiptoes to pass it by.

"Cassidy?" Koryuus voice shouted after me.

Dang, he had nevertheless noticed me. "Yeeeeees?" I drew out.

"What do you do there?"

I looked down at myself and briefly asked myself whether if he seriously asked me that. Apparently already.

"I'm standing in the hall?" I returned as sarcastically as I could because I couldn´t shut my cheeky mouth for once. I heard him sigh, and then something cracked. Tearing my eyes open, I realized that he had gotten up. I quickly covered beside the door, so that my body was covered by the wall and the door frame. With two fingers I pressed down the handle and stretched only my head by the door.

I was right, once more. Koryuu stood in front of the sofa, apparently in the perfect example to come into my direction, however, by my action I had taken this from him. Doubtfully he glared at my wet hair. However, my look furtively touched the blond man with the mask. The place on which he had touched me still tingled. Automatically I thought of his fingers in my crotch and felt a strange heat rising. I closed the eyes and inhaled deeply. Don´t get horny, don´t get horny...

As if the world wanted to give a stupid proof, the redhead stared at me with a knowing grin, thus as he would know exactly what would be going on in my mind and if it still gave him a pleasure to watch how my desperation grew bigger and bigger.

"Are you naked?" the endlessly irritating voice Koryuus tinted again. Actually, he was quite ok, but now and especially today he really got on my nerves.

I opened my eyes again and gave him the darkest look I could just come up with. "Of course I am naked, Koryuu. I run always in the nude through the flat … Already forget?"

"Was that sarcasm?" the zombie looking man whispered to Blondie. He only lay his elbows on his knees and folded the hands into each other. „No clue …" the blonde hummed back. Kid's grin became just more and more wide.

„I get dressed then," I chirped. However, _'stupid ass plug'..._

At least the guys were dumbfounded. This day had at least something good.

Only five minutes later I had put on something new, this time I pecked out something by far more comfortable. Sure, the patent leather pants had their advantages, finally, it was washable. Indeed, one could not draw them on wet skin absolutely at all, and if one sweated, as well as I in the little fight with my order, the material stucked awfully. It was like a forming vacuum. If one had finally got them off, the skin felt clammy and disgusting. I raised the material piece scrutinising, only to fling it at the wall in the next moment. First the pants got stuck, before it glid down slowly.

A thick sweat drop formed beside my eye which started to twitch again. Today anyhow I had quite a bad feeling.

This wretched guy had to go from my head … It couldn´t be that a guy which I just had seen could spellbound me like that. _Breathe deeply, Cass … breathe deeply._ _This are only feelings which your brain generates. Just a chemical reaction to my body, nothing more_. Unfortunately, my body answered this with a respectable „Fuck you."

_How probably his hot lips would feel on my body, and his big strong Han.-STOP _… While I gave myself a clout round the ears and finally noticed, how I got clearer again, I inhaled quite deeply first over.

The elastic Lycra of my tights stretched over my legs. It was a pleasant feeling. The wrapping of my skin was interrupted at the places at which my tights were torn up. Above I just wore a black short hotpants. Not so cheap looking like most of the girls did it at the moment, or better said not whorely short.

In addition I mend my body into a narrow T-shirt, brand Child department, and therefore a little more scarcely and shorter, but it hugged my curves perfectly. Although I was so or so rather the sporty type. Affectionately Sai always called me her amazon. It was not meant completely thus as a compliment, but thus I understood it. It flattered me, finally, that another woman recognised me as a stronger person without envy.

To work in this kind of night club had some conditions. Which were laid on a certain measure of sexyness that could be managed easily by the way of dressing. Besides, cultivated appearance was a must, and I only knew too well, the better I looked, the simplier I had it with the customers. Swiftly I applied some eyeliner, covered it then with kohl and shaded it to my version of bombproof smoky Eyes. I added some mascara on the eyelashes, and my eyes looked finally like two dark but glowing stars.

Grinning I gave my reflection a last examining look and came along into the lions den to fetch what belonged to me. The laced boots were pressed tightly against my calves, giving me a good feeling.

Without knocking, I sent the door to the living room flying open and enjoyed that perplex looks. Indeed, it also stroke me that the conversation which just was carried on fell silent. Eyes rolling I stepped to the table. This time nobody said a word when I took the weapons and put them again in the suitable halters. Men were mysterious to me sometimes. And with sometimes I meant almost always. First big fuss was made because I wanted to take my property, and then, after showing up like the big boss, one let me simply do as I wished. I twitched my shoulders in my mind. Should they stay down, nevertheless, in her testosterone-impregnated air, if they liked to...

Distrustfully the blonde got up, and also the zombie-looking guy rose up. Indeed, I just did not feel like playing such games. It was always the same. Everybody knew how children in the kindergarten argued about a little sandy form or an excavator, or any other immensely cool toy. What was considered to be cool today? Oh yes, exactly … I just thought simply: child A owned some sort of Spongebob toy, of course Child B and C wanted to have it, probably even child L, N and Z. As a result a quarrel about who is the mightiest one would break out, because that said person would get the toy.

If anyone believed this would be only a thing of children, they never had a contact with a mobster. Indeed, here the disputes were differently delivered. Spongebob mutated to the district, to women or to weapons. And the children changed swiftly into mafiosi, small criminals and other gangsters. Whom did concern toys if it there were important things like drugs, sex and money? The toys of the men …

To live in America, quite specifically in New York, allowed my understanding of the superficiality to get to no end. I hit the heels of my boots against each other and murmured "There´s no place like home…"

"Will you snap out of it, Guys?" I said, blewing a strand from my face which had got lost there. Now though I had everything what I needed, indeed, I had no clue where I had to go. Of course this had to affect in my unfavours, as usual.

It was the prince of darkness itself who called his men back, and indicated with a short wave to take their seats again and to cause no annoyance.

I stared at my occupant, while I made a very wide gesture in the round.

„Do they come around more often now?" My teeth crunched, and, nevertheless, I took care of some degree in friendliness what did indicate for me: Not to jump the guests in the face.

„Possibly." the redhead, whose name I did not know yet, answered instead. His high standing hair was supported by his strange airman's glasses. All in all, the type is absolutely strange. But if one looked at his friends in such a way, it even rather suited.

I twitched with the shoulders and disappeared without one more word to lose.

Even if I had not listened to Alessio, I could do what corresponded soonest to the logic. To go to the club and look what was going on. Probably he had, as usual, only called because he needed somebody to have an eye on the employees there. And this was also necessary, damn. One should not let any of them out of sight, otherwise they were drunk faster than the guests could ever get. However, the big problem consisted in it, they also were not to be served the guests then …

And so I needed to go back to the basement garage to get my beloved bike. At least I had no long way to go. There was just a fifteen minute time of ride in which I didn´t drive overly fast. If I would be asked "car documents and drivers license, please" my answer would be "Bullet through the skull and head on my way". Nobody dared to get between me and my freedom, to which my set of wheels contributed.

I put down the machine and swung myself swiftly from the only lover in my present life as I reached the parking bay of the club. _You could call him Killer …_ a voice purred in my thoughts. Curling my lips into a thin line and being very disgruntled about my own ill brain, I made my way to the entrance. The Mudd club was well known, and counted to the biggest clubs in New York. Maybe that was why Alessio afforded good bouncers and proved that not everybody came in.

I huffed loud and audible. Finally then I stomped further to the doors. Even if the club had opened it doors just a few minutes ago there was already a long line of giggling girls and young woman, trying desperately to get in. The wenches started to hiss angry as I made my way towards the doors, but before they could murmur ´I should find my place at the end of the line (blablaa)´ I stood in front of Franky, whose eyes started to gleam as he laid an eye on me. I didn´t have the slightest clue but this hulk of a man just liked me.

"Hey Boss," he called out happily and immediatly I parted the mass of humans like Moses did with the water. It was the first time of this day that I felt, literally, heavenly.

"Hey Franky." I just gave him a short look.

"Anything interesting until now?" He shook his head and I simply nodded, letting my feet carry myself into the club firstly and looked around. Everything was calm. Grinning satisfied I let myself plop onto a stool at the bar. In that moment I made contact with the seat, my dearest trolley dolley ran to me quickly: Ace. The blackhaired handsome guy with the cheeky grin and the funny freckles worked at the club for a few weeks now, and I liked him, and wooh, the drinks that he made were just plain fantastic.

"Hey Cass!" He called out and beamed brightly.

"Same as ever?" I just had the time to give a sharp nod as he already had the strawberries in his hand to mix the best Strawberry Daiquiri that I ever had. Yep, I had to admit that I simply loved those kind of drinks. Rum? Just sent it my way. Vodka? Sure, give it to me, but only when I felt the need for that… But nothing could compare with a well mixed cocktail.

Shortly after I placed my order, the drink was put in front of my nose and Ace strolled over to the other side of the bar to serve the floozies. I just rolled my eyes. Sometimes it was really bad how those random cunts tried to get a free drink (and maybe a free ride on Ace, too). Some of them all but threw their tits on the bar, but Ace seemed not to be interested in them whom tried to land on him.

Probably he was more the "I choose who gets into my pants" type of guy and it was quite obvious that he didn´t prefer the woman whom threw themselves at him.

While I sipped at my drink, being deep into my thoughts, a hand with an attendant arm winded around my waist. In a short first moment I was flabbergasted but the fingernails told me who the groper was. Sai. The longtime playmate of the master… I snorted about my returning cynicism and turned around to her.

She let it seem like an accident, imitated a stumbling which she assumed was caused by my fast turning, and landed on my breasts with her face. _Stupid groping bitch… _You needed one more sign that I didn´t believe in this accidents? She did it often. She stretched, and accidentally her hand landed on my breast, or she hugged me and stroke my tits… Again and again….

Who would believe in coincidences?

In the meantime even I got that she fancied myself, but hell would be freezed over if I ever tried to hook up with her. Every dumbass would know: Never ever try to hook up with the playmate of a gangsterboss. If he got rid of her, maybe, but definitely not before. Another problem could be the fact that I was indeed a woman. It was probably possible that Alessio counted to the 80% of men which would love to have two women in their beds. In an instant my stomach clenched. The thought of me, lying naked in the same bed with him while he…. Urghs…

And just because of that, I shoved her fingers softly, but certain away from me.

"Nice to see you, Sai," I said dryly and stood up. The last sip of my drink was swigged down fastly.

"Is there anything new?" She smiled meaningful. "Alessio did call you, am I right?"

It was not hard to put two and two together and I knew who I heard moaning on the phone. Unfortunately I couldn´t stop my face from getting red. Her hand stroke my cheek very softly.

"Does it turn you on?" Sai breathed towards me and lid her eyes half while pressing her abdomen against mine. "When you hear my moaning in the background?"

I gulped hard. I wouldn´t call it to be turned on. More grossing me out. But not because of her, just because of the person that made her do this kind of noises. God, what kind of twisted psych I must have to work for this man that I loathed so much.

My hands snapped for her wrists while I tried to glare as intimidate as possible into her eyes. " .That!" I hissed with firm voice. Sai winced back as she got a look of the murderous intent in my glare.

"Don´t be like that, honey…" she sulked and shoved her lower lip a bit forward.

"I could help you…"

"Oh, and with what?" I just retorted. "Believe me, I don´t need anybody who-"

"Come on. I know exactly that you haven´t been listening to him. You would never have said yes to that… even Alessio wondered, but I am sure he doesn´t think too much about it."

In moments like this I really hated her calculate being. My eye twitched again and I honestly thought about just slapping her. But she was right… She knew a thing that I should know. I grabbed the bridge of my nose with two fingers and closed my eyes.

„Ok… Just spit out what you want for the information."

She smiled meaningly.

„Well, you of course!" and pressed her frame against mine who could only stare at her, totally dumbfounded.

editors note: I refer to the song "Feuer Frei" of Rammstein, Feuer Frei is simple translated as: open fire/start shooting – as there is a difference to fire at will


	2. Chapter 1 Learning by doing

Hey, and a nice and almost warm welcome to my first story in english. If I make any mistakes, please let me know if you like to, and I will try to change them as fast as possible.

Yeah, I am not a native speaker, but I just wanted to give it a try to write a story in another language. At first I really like to thank the wonderful and absolutely awesome Motherloosegoose, who had been so kind to offer (and also sacrificed) herself as my beta-reader. My deepest love for that (I can feel your pain *dramatical gesture*)

For all the others, readers, reviewers, followers or whomever you may be: Thank you for passing by and giving my story a try. Reviews are like chocolate, you can never have enough of them :)

**Corners and edges of a Killer**

**Chapter 1**

**Learning by doing**

My hand trembled as I lifted the weapon up, that I held. Even if it was nothing new for me, I still got nervous when I had to fulfill this kind of duty. The fact, that nobody watched e in that specific moment was somehow making me feel really happy. Sure, I did establish some sort of reputation within the years of experience**,** which was in fact the one and only important point that allowed me to fulfill my duties without anybody by my side. Oh, well, it was not like I felt disturbed by some sort of audience, but I preferred to work rather alone.

There was no other woman in the closest ambiance of Alessio Montalba but for me. Who that is? Oh, he was the local, well, more superregional, Gangster par excellence. There was no place wherehe had not his fingers in, and he was goddamn successful with that. So successful that he had subordinates in the police, in the administration, simply everywhere. That was another reason why I felt so fucking nervous. Alessio didn´t tolerate any failure in his rows. And that was actually the reason WHY I had to be here.

I gulped down the saliva that had formed in my mouth and also tried to push back the lump in my throat. Not a good moment to think about the last one that failed, whose dead body was sealed into one of the industrial buildings at the dockside. It did make me feel somehow gladthat the dead body hadn't been found until now, as it was me whom overflowed him with cement. The viscous liquid had taken some time until it filled the whole building pit, in which middle I had placed the poor devil whom had been so daring to pity a young mother. However, the young mother had stolen a large amount of money from Alessio. She was, from what I know, over the hills and far away, but he, oh well, he had to suffer.

David, that was what the poor blighter was called, was alive as I brought him there. He couldn´t run away with his shot knee joints, and it was me who watched him as he got slowly surrounded by the grey cement until it was able to enter in his mouth as his head seemed to disappear under the grey mass. Finally**,** the vicious mass had filled his lungs, followed by an eerie silence after one last deep gargle. I still waited for a short time to make sure that enough cement was running over his body until he couldn't be seen anymore. With a last glance on the grey stuff, I stopped the concrete mixer and drove it back to the company where I rent themixing machine by myself. Just to make sure that nobody could follow a track back to me Iused a fake ID, and so a wrong name. Smart little me…

Shit, I felt really fucked up. But I had no choice in those matter, either I did as I was ordered to, or it would be me who had to bite the dust. No doubt which choice I made – had to made – again and again- if I had no suicidal tendencies. I could only hope that nobody of the crew would ever get to know the kind of twinge of conscience bothering me, and that I was indeed not that coldhearted Beast, that Alessio believed he had turned me into. For him I was only his little trained doggy. Thank God, - even if I was sure that HE could have absolutely nothing to do with it…- Alessio and I had a Deal, in which I only had to take care of the dirty work a few times, but for that, I did all the sorts of negotiations that the men loathed generally, and also I worked in one of his nightclubs, just to have a little money for me.

The last was also my proposal. Livinig in a loft, where I owned a room at, was quite nice and it was surely paid by my employer. A fact that I did not like at all**,** and I was tired of asking Alessio for money. He gave it to me without batting an eye, or asking for what I needed it. But I was sure, that he would come, however, to the stupid idea to let me pay back this kind of favor one day with something different than money, and I SURELY was not keen on that. Not that the man with the broad shoulders and the middle length black hair wasn't attractive… but he was not my type. I´m not into the tanned guys type, and even prostitution was not my main thing. Actually, there was nothing, depending on men, which attracted me.

And so I stood here, with my trembling hand in which I held a gun and aimed at the head of a totally stranger. Some stranger who dared to give Alessio a wrong look, got into his way of business, or something else. I did not ask.

His eyes stared coldly and he did not utter a single word. Standing on his chest with my right foot, I pressed him to the ground while fixating him with my glance. I pulled the trigger and the bullet shot through the absorbing duct directly into his skull. My gun was my little treasure, a handmade Desert Eagle, of full steel and additional chromed. The latter just because I was a normal-unnormal woman and so I liked things that were gleaming…

Caliber 44, hollow point-bullets. Extreme destructive, and extreme deathly, especially in my hands. His skull bursts asunder at the back as the bullet corrodes through his head with a speed of 300 meters per second. The bullet was faster as any pain could be, and I knew he hadn´t felt anything since he was dead already in the moment, the bullet met his brain. Even if I hated to kill other humans, I did it fast and made sure it was never painful… Beside I had the order for this… Immediately**,** I thought about David. _Damn Shit! Damn fucking shit, _said a voice in my head again. _Why had it to be me who met that dangerous man on this disastrous day? I was young and didn´t know better doesn´t count…_

**Flashback**

_But it was like this. I was young, damn young. Thirteen to be more exact and I stood in the middle of New York without any knowledge where I was and how my life should go on. _

_My parents? Well, they had decided that life is easier without a teenager and they didn´t need a child anymore… it was more… easy, more simple, without me. In my adolescent carelessness, I thought of the world as a beautiful place that was just fantastic, but well…that didn't seem to be the case._

_With the rest of my money, I bought a ticket to New York, and a few days later I stood at this specific point in an alley in a darker district of Manhattan. Well, the rooms here were cheap, and since money didn't grow on trees, I had to eat something that was a little amount. There was no wonder that the rate of criminality was quite high in this area. _

_I moved out of the alley, back to the street that was more fluctuated. A luxurious car almost overrolled me. I cursed angry and primarily loud._

"_Can´t you just watch out you Fucker?" I roared after the chavvy boat on wheels. To my misfortune the said boat on wheels stopped, rolled back until the door met my frame and opened. _

_My eyes directly looked into the muzzle of a gun._

"_What did you say, bitch?" I heard a deep and sonorous voice say._

_And I didn´t care. I didn´t care that he aimed a gun at me and I didn´t care if I would die right then and there. At my age, everyone knew that women without any education would not find a first class job and earn a lot of bucks… No, girls like me knew that we would end as some cheap hooker, earning just a few dollars which they spent to be drugged to the eyeballs and finally died in some alley behind some garbage cans where it would smell of piss and garbage._

_That´s the reason why I was totally relaxed when I repeated __what I just had said._

_"Can´t you just watch out, you fucker." _

"_Hmm…" hummed the other voice thinking. Maybe he had expected something else than this. _

_Well, he should, the stupid sucker._

_The muzzle sank down and the gun disappeared. _

"_How old are you, girl?"_

_I was stunned, but answered anyway. "Thirteen". If it was the sovereignty in his voice or just plain stupidity, I did not know. _

"_Where are your parents…?" he asked, and I just laughed half-heartedly._

"_Somewhere in France, or Monte Carlo, or.. or … or... I don´t know. They disposed themselves of me."_

„_Hm," he said again. A portentous silence arised in which I did not know what he would do._

_Would he shoot me down, or not?_

"_Get in," he ordered and I obeyed without a second thought. There was nothing that could hold me back or that was waiting for me. So what? I could die on the street or I could take the opportunity of something else, even if the something else meant to be shot down in a fucking car. Since that day I never disobeyed one of his orders. Not one._

I cleaned my shoe off on his button up shirt, on which his gray-rose brain mass was sticking and took note that his brain also decorated the walls. While I sashayed back to the staircase to try to get a way through that disgusting mass, I felt reminded of afoot path full of dog turd.

The gun was quickly placed back into the holster under my arm. Yes, it was a damn stupid place, but it was hidden and I didn´t like it when the fellow adherents of my race realize that I wore a gun. They always encountered my person automatically with fear, and I disliked people fearing me. To be honest, nobody really feared me, if he didn´t realize what I was doing – thank god, nobody knew. I used this slang quite often… Maybe I should visit a church again and confess? If I would feel better then? Surely not.

A sigh escaped my lips.

With my height of 5,5 feet I did not look like the usual killer… However, I would never describe me as such. I was just a young woman, who got pretty shitty strucked by life, and that was only my trying of saying it in a nice way.

My long legs, which plunged in a tight and black patent leather pants, swang above my motorcycle, for what, how could it be otherwise, I had no license for. But hey, I bought it by myself, so what?

Only my Desert Eagle was allowed on my person, that was actually what the deed of ownership and my gun license of the local prestigious shooting club said. The Americans were more frank with that … If I thought about the Europeans and their fear of weapons, however, there were some near them. I shook my head and started the engine. Although my knife was pressing against my calf. A further security accessoire that I always had with me. You could never knew…

Another miniature knife was stuck in a bracelet at my wrist. Since it was only three inches**,** it was small enough that it could be easily hidden, but nevertheless long enough to cause enough damage.

As I glide through the darkness of the night, I had to think about David. My eyes started tearing up. Now, of all things…. _Fuck…_

After what felt like an eternity I found myself being in front of the basement garage of the building our loft laid in. The "our" could be explained easily. I had a flat mate, or I´d better say, he had me as a flatmate.

Koryuu, that was his name, belonged to Alessios organization as well. I did not know much about him, nor did he know of me, which was probably good.

Alessio wasn´t stupid, and only the trusted followers got a position of a higher grade. Koryuu stood quite high in the power structure… very high.

He was furthermore one of the closest friends of Alessio, anyhow I had the feeling to see something devious, every time I saw him - equal to a snake. I doubted that it was good to have such a person near you, on the other hand I let never anybody close to me, so maybe my opinion didn´t count.

To have friends was a thing I had no need for, same went with dates. The man, that could interest me, hadn't been born yet, or maybe I had yet to meet him.

To me, Koryuu's behavior was never inappropriate. Within the first weeks that I´d been in the organization, he offered me a room in his loft. My money source and employer agreed, and so I moved to him. At the age of thirteen!

The neighbours were more than angered, and more than once they called me a nefarious whore. Koryuu got totally enraged and put the curious neighbours in their place. The equivalent neighbor, a middle-aged female, seemed very distressed as Koryuu encountered that HIS sister was for sure not a whore and she would move in with him because our parents had passed away a short time ago.

The devious snake came to my defense and I was very thankful for that. But still**,** he had this snake-similar attitude which made me wonder and worried. Today I was nineteen and for six years at Alessio´s side.

One year ago he called me to him and explained very shortly that I would be the only one whom he can think of as his first "man". Me, a**,** at that time, eighteen year old…

"Age doesn´t matter," he had muttered and I was silent when I realized his anger.

"It only matters that you obey every of my orders, you never answer back and you don´t question anything that I say or do…" he continued.

"And that´s why you will take over that said position!" I didn't dare talk back, and Iaccepted his order silently.

At least he shared my opinion that it would be better to tell no-one about my new status. It could cause to much infuriation that a young woman got the second highest position. In case of any emergency I knew all Codes, and access to all companies and data, and, most important, his money. Who would have thought that keeping secret of my position would come in so handy?

My motorcycle was parked and I took the opportunity to stretch my body intensely. There were two exits down here, one for the usual residents and one that lead due to our training rooms – that were as good as a regular fitnesscenter. Money buys a lot … for example a high end security system, on which sensor I placed my thump at to let it be read.

The door opened with nearly no sound and I strolled into the corridor behind. Huge windows allowed the view into the rooms, in which novel fitness equipment had been placed.

It was not a problem to get back to the usual floor, but I avoided the possibility of meeting the neighbours for just a few seconds. Honestly, the chance to see one of them at this time was quite low.

Just a minute later I opened up the entrance door and faltered immediately when voices reached my ear. Voices of some humans. That was accordingly unusual as Koryuu never had any visitors.

I glanced skeptical in the living room and felt myself being in the view of seven unknown men….

The most irritating, no, better the two most irritating were a man with extremely red hair that seemed to stick up and let him look like a tulip just before it flowers. He carried some sort of pilot goggles that held his hair in place. At his right side sat a huge guy with a blue white helmet on his head. Just staring at him made me feel some sort of tingling sensation on my neck. He was lanky, but muscular and I felt myself being somehow attracted. Strange oddball.

Even the rest of the crew seemed very strange. Next to the very huge guy sat another one, wearing a corset and having long slightly blue dreadlocks on his head, one more had an orange Mohawk… The two other guys looked pretty normal considering the others.

They didn´t seem common to me and I was pretty sure that they were not belonging to us. My eyebrows raised up in a suspicious matter. I lived after the credo: Who is not my friend, is a foe. And every unknown person was surely not a friend to me.

I didn´t utter a single word, just twirled on my heel with the goal to wash blood away that was possibly on my hands, same as the imaginary, but his voice summoned me back.

"The rules in this house are valid also for you, Cassidy!"

His voice let the accusation flow lapidarly, but I knew he was more serious than it sounded. My left hand clasped at the door case, and I really thought about ignoring the hidden order. If he knew who I actually was, he would have to follow my orders, and not the other way round. But as long as he did not know, he was above me, at least I was only a worker in a nightclub.

And that was why I turned back around to the living room and walked back in. Their glances upon my frame were more than obvious. Maybe he hadn´t told anything about me yet.

Two big scythes were laying on the table. Dried blood sticked on the blades and showed that the owner had used them a short time ago, and for sure not to cut grass.

My glance fell on the redhaired, who wore no shirt under his fur coat, but a weapon belt, which was, as I could see, empty. The thing had to be expensive, I was sure about that… and heavy… Slowly I opened my jacket.

"I hadn´t anticipated you coming home so early…" Koryuu glanced at me and I could see the reproachful hint that lay in his eyes.

"Didn´t you have shift today?", he continued and nearly let me flinch.

I just managed to nod. If I tried to lie, my voice usually had the bad habit to tilt. That made me the possibly badest liar in the criminal history, maybe the whole world. If anything it could be the reason that I´d never lost morality and decency… Otherwise I had to put the both aside sometimes to save my own little ass. A little bit angered I thought about the fact that this idiot didn´t need to know that I had no shift.

Koryuu cleared his throat and pulled me out of my thoughts. Sighing, I slowly took the Magnum 44 of its holster and nearly winced as I realized that I hadn´t screwed off the absorbing duct. Shit!

Without showing any sign of my uneasiness or saying any word, I pulled the weapon out. Immediately the men stiffed, as if they calculated that I may shoot on one of them…

_Idiots… _ If I shot one of them, there still would be six whom could blindside me, maybe seven if I counted Koryuu to them.

It might be a lot, but for sure, I was not stupid… Slowly I put the weapon on the table and wanted to turn around again.

"Cassidy!" he hissed sharply, what made me turn around once more. If I did that more often, I could be a ballerina. Just staring at my flatmate, I got on one of my knees, but not without growling at him. I freed the knife of the fixation at my calf and put it on the table as well.

"Deceitful little girl," the redhaired looked at me with a broad grin, but a look on Koryuu told me that he knew it hadn´t been everything that I had with me, and so I stood up and also pulled out the little knife from the holster of my wrist. He nodded satisfied.

"That's all?" he asked. This time it is me who nodded. With a sigh I tried again to turn around to get finally my wanted shower but I was stopped again, this time from another voice that reached my ear.

"Wait!" he ordered and I frowned at him. It was the redhaired one, as it seems.

"She is not one of us, and we can´t be sure that this were all weapons…"

My eyes sparkled from the rage that I felt. What the fuck came to his mind?

"Are you still in your right mind? For what reason should I hide a weapon? Even if I would do, I possibly could hurt one, maybe two of you… Are you so damn stupid that you don´t see that you outnumber me and it would be totally senseless to attack you?" I hissed like a mad cat.

"CASSIDY!" barked Koryuu, and I knew from his look that I had done something pretty, _pretty_ stupid. But the redhaired just smirked.

„I like women with spirit…" Kid said and put his head on his thumb and forefinger.

"You too, Killer?" he asked the male right at his side in a perfectly calm tone.

_Killer? Is that his real name, or just a codename? Ah, sure a codename…_

"Nobody names their child killer…" escaped my lips thinkfully and muttering, but immediately everything was silent.

"oops…" I said as I realized that something slipped out what shouldn´t slip out. The blonde was already standing and I could see his fists tremble. Weak point, hit and sunk. It was a damn fact that I never could hold back my tongue…

"Do you like some tea?" I asked as politely as I could and smiled softly while cocking my head to the side like a good housewife would do.

That must had set him off and as I heard the roaring laughter of his boss echoing through the room, I knew the situation was safe now. I let out a relieved breath just to flinch in the next moment.

"Search her through, Killer. We don´t need any displeasing surprises."  
Throwing a glance to Koryuu, I prayed he tried to stop them, but he didn´t even spared me a look and so I just growled as the lanky guy approached me. When he stood finally in front of me I realized how tall he really was and how easily he was towering me, so I had to look up to him. His hair reached nearly his hips, that was quite noteable for a guy.

I stepped to the side, and directly he came after me. One view to the side secured me that the wall was right behind me. Raising my eyebrows and slightly angered, I spread my arms and legs to allow him to do as his boss had ordered.

That was one thing that I really hated.

His hands glide hasty, but efficient above my upperarms, than my underarms, my armpits, running over my sides until he met my hip. His hair was stroing my right wrist as he got down on one of his knees to pat my legs down. This time he started at my feet, sailed up at the first and then the other leg up to my thigh. Afterwards he stood up, and I was totally entirely if he stared at my due to his mask until his fingers finally landed in the middle of my crotch. He was standing right between me and the others so that nobody could see a thing except his back.

"She has no more weapons, Kid," Killer commented the order of his captain and turned back to the table, but not without stroking my middle section before he removed his fingers. In an instant my legs turned into jelly and I was so close to press myself against him, my luck that I didn´t do it.


	3. Chapter 3 long repressed memory

_**Wuhu, thanks for the reviews of the people who seem to like my story. Again, I am quite sorry for my poor englisch at some times. If you see anything where I have to improve, just let me know.  
**_

_**Okay, here is the thirs chapter, and I already got the fourth done. I will be able to update it bext week after my chemistry exam will be done :)  
**_

_**Chapter 3**_

_**Long repressed memory returns**_

**She smiled meaningly.**

"**Well, you of course!" and pressed her frame against mine who could only stare at her, totally dumbfounded. **

"Ahem… Sai?" I tried softly. „You know that I am not … well… lesbian?" She rolled her eyes.

"Cutie, as I would give a damn, You want information? You know how it´s working here… If you want it, you have to pay for it…"

I found myself getting in deep thoughts that made me frown. The fucking truth was: she was right. Of course I knew that. Who could know it better than me?

In this specified moment in which I closed my eyes, Sai already knew that she had won, and was pleased like a punch.

"Fine… What do you want?" I knew that my voice might be a little too demanding, but she would get over it. In return she just laid a finger on her lips and smiled playfully.

"Oh, come on. Don´t be so … dispassionate. I will do it like for every new customer. For the first time you will get only a first shot," she said while pressing her body further to mine.

"And when you are addicted to me, then it will cost you more and more until you are finally kneeing in front of me." I didn´t respond to that. Never ever will it come as she had said.

"And what will this first 'time' cost me?"

She just smirked again.

"Just a kiss." I faltered. A Kiss… Well, I could live with a kiss. All of a sudden I was more than thankful for the bad and dim light within here. To be honest: I not only had no dates… I also had no experience at all. My life was dedicated to my job and therewith to Alessio. I had never been involved with … such things.

I nodded anyhow. What alternatives did I have? Grinning and with a strange glint in her eyes, she pulled my face closer to hers. I anxiously tried to not lose my poise (***cough* had to try to find out with a dictionary, but I am not sure if it´s right) **She looked deep into my eyes, so deep that I thought of being carried away in a deepness of purest blue, which made me wince as I realize it, but her hands were faster on my back as I could try to fallback **(I choose the military style here, as she is a killer that is used to orders, but maybe it´s grammatically wrong?). **As in Slow Motion I saw her mouth coming closer to mine, seeming to devour myself. There was an opening between her slightly parted lips, that let me have a view on the incomprehensible darkness which was waiting for me.

Good, that would be it. My first kiss, with a woman. That was nothing bad, right? RIGHT? My thoughts were racing in my brain, played Bongo with my feelings. Was there anything that I had to think of? Or did I just press my lips on hers and wait until it was over? Damn, what did someone do in such a situation. I did not want to look ridiculous.

Other people were always claiming, everything around them would turn silent and calm if two human beings kissed, but that was not the case for me. The sound intensity of the club around me seemed to get much louder than before.

Finally I felt something soft and also warm on my lips. Sai´s lips. I knew that my eyes were wide from shock and I heard Ace rummaging behind my back, putting bottles and glasses overloudly on the bar, pouring liquids and huffing.

Surely he could see us without any problems. But still, the question what I had to do was still present in my mind, as I did not want to look as an absolute newbie. So I put one of my hands on her buttom, but before I did so, I let it first glide slowly over her back. With the second hand I slid to her neck, pressing her frame slightly closer to mine and just hoped that my offensive behavior covered my unsureness.

Our mouths parted finally. A soft red gleam lay on her cheeks while her breathing was so fast that I thought she must have been on a rush.

"Wow, that was … awesome," She huffed loudly. Someone clearing his throat behind me made me aware that Ace was still behind the counter, watching us. I just gave him a waving gesture, calming as it seems. Finally he turned to his customers to serve them

My hand grabbed her wrist and she squeaked as I pulled her closer.

"What-is-with-the-information?" I said with determination in my voice and I knew about the murderous glint in my eyes. I was definetly not in the mood for playing such games.

Sai made a short huff but tried not to look at me and ruffled her hair nervously.

"You should go to the office… Jay is waiting for you," She said swiftly. I felt a hopeful glance on me but ignored it. Before I stumped to the said office I turned to meet her gaze once more and gave her a stern view.

"Get home, Sai. Take a rest."

It nearly was as I could have felt what would be awaiting and for sure it was nothing good.

The doormans just eyed me up shortly, but they knew me and so nobody of them got into my way as I made my leave to the stairs, leading to the office directly above the dancefloor and that can only be reached with some sort of small plank . While standing in front of the door I did a quick check of myself, readjusted my clothes and knocked afterwards. The first impression was always the most important. Maybe not for Jay, but definitely for me. Nobody answered my knocking…

I knocked again, more suspisious this time, and also louder, but again nobody seemed to acknowledge my Effort. After all I decided to open the door and stepped in, but as my Hand pressed down on the handle and the door swung open, and view that I got took my breath away like nothing in my whole live had ever done.

The moment in which I just stood there, staring was pretty short until I summed up the situation and stepped into the room. I closed the door just in a flash. Yet while my hand fumbled at the lock to get it locked as fast as possible before someone got the opportunity to get in, I tried to get a lookover.

"Fuck…" I uttered out, and for a moment … well a quite long moment, I was shocked. Really shocked, and yeah, that was for sure a really rare feeling. I took the time to close my eyes for a second, taking a ragged breath and telling myself that everything here was as it should be, that the air was not smelling like shit and I didn´t have to take care of anything. BY a way of trial I opened up only one eye, and finally the second one, just to see, and quite angry I may add, that I haven´t been wrong.

"Wonderful cute… Shit…"

On the ground, directly before my shoes, were two dead bodies. That alone was not the point that caused me trouble. Hell, it even was not the first time that I had to see something like this, but the condition … that was the deciding factor that even made my stomach twist and got my hands clammy. A few strands of hair were hanging loosely in my face and I quickly put them back behind my ears to get them out of my vision. Carefully I turned one of the bodies on his back with the tip of my foot.

It was Jay, no doubt…

Kid and Killer came alone this time. Still he found the Boss somehow creepy. The commanding form with the flaming red and upstanding hair and the extremely pale skin alone was frightening enough, but his first mate wasn´t less frightening. Particularly his mask irritated him. Without being able to see the face of your opponent it was quite hard to estimate the other persons thinking. At least Eustass Kid counted to the Top Gangsters in New York, even of America where he took one of the three highest ranks of the most powerful gangsters.

Koryuu still couldn´t say if it had been a good choice to make deals with that kind of guy, but even if he would regret it, there was no going back. Kid seemed not to be the sort of gangster whom you could tell "Oh, as you see, I thought my choice over and well, I really don´t want to work for or with you." He sighed. Alessio had actually to disappear. The position of the second-in-command hadn´t been occupied for a very long time and then he just decided to ignore him? Him? Koryuu, who was faithful by his side for years? And then to made things worse, he also did not tell him whom he had chosen? His face twitched furious when he thought about the little discussion with Alessio Montalba.

Flashback:

„_But Ales…. You know as well as I that you need somebody by your side!"_

_He waved it aside. "Don´t you think I have enough women around me? What shall I do with one that is around me all the time?"_

"_You know exactky that THAT was not what I was talking about!"_

_Alessio just smiled softly at him before he leaned back in his comfortable desk chair, contacted the fingertips of both hands with each other and just looks at Koryuu. _

"_So what? So you think you would be the right choice, Koryuu?" He examined him blatantly._

„_That´s not the point, Ales. And you know that. I don´t care if you choose me or someone else," Koryuu declared with a hint of rage. A vein started it´s pulsating on his forehead. "If you choose me, well, I wouldn´t be unhappy about it. But it wouldn´t matter whom you choose if you finally do it. That would be much of a progress, you know." As he finished the sentence he just looked in the eyes of his longtime friend that he admired and also loathed so much._

_His opponent nodded. _

"_Fine…" The criminal boss looked out of the window. „Fine, I will chose some sort of deputy for me…" With a little gesture of his hand, he made clear that it was time for Koryuu to leave. And that´s what he did. _

_One week later Alessio told him that he had found someone to chose as a second-in-command, but he didn´t want to tell him who it was. He asked several times, but was put off with the answer that it was a top secret information and that the deputy disposed all necessary information. On the one hand, he could understand the man, but otherwise it was unthinkable for an organization not top know the own command structure. And then Kid made his entry in Koryuus life._

_The day had been rainy, also stormy. Koryuu was sure that the wheather fittet perfectly to what had happened, when he took the time to think about it. _

_He had been doing his trainingsprogram in the exercixe rooms when suddenly a door was opened. At first he was sure it could only have been Cassidy and so he didn´t even looked. After all the safety system was one of the best that could be bought. _

_Footsteps could be heard, but he sat on some sort of breast muscle press with the back to the door. In a short moment he lowered his face to take a deep breath, and just an instant later he found himself being swept of the machine and banged with his back in the nearest wall. A masked face shoved itself into his view, which was framed with blond long strands. Koryuu didn´t know the face or better, the mask. _

_He wasn´t weak at all and so he struggled against the stranger, who pressed his forearm against Koryuus chest and pushed him so hard back to the wall, that he thought his rips may break._

_He bawled his hands to fists and tried to hit the head of the masked man, whom had no problem to dodge his punches without any problems. Instead of getting hit, he took the opportunity and gripped the other man´s forearm and pulled him forward. Koryuu stumpled awkwardly a little bit. A totally calculated punch in his back, sent him flying to the ground. It just took another instant for the blonde to make just two little moves and make the black haired guy unmovable. _

_Directing his eyes to the door, where another person just entered, he saw Eustass Kid for the very first time in his life. Red and dangerous glinting eyes met his. _

_He just took a moment to watch the whole situation and smirked. _

"_Oh, as I can see, Killer had already delivered my invitation." He stretched a little, until he took a seat at the muscle press that Koryuu had sit at just a few seconds ago. Testing the machine, he did two pulls and could do the with an unbelieveable easiness. _

"_Hm," he hummed thoughtfully, but turned back to him. _

"_It´s nice to see that you found the time to answer my invitation so fast."_

_The blackhaired gulped, but fixated his view on the man in front of him –which was kind of difficult as he had to look straight upward and even his neck already hurt. "You have a very odd way when it depends on invitations…" The mobster glanced down to him._

"_How do you invite your Mum to lunch?" Koryuu asked sarcastically, but only earned a heavy press on his back that made him moan. What ever the blonde man did, he knew exactly what to do, and more so, how he could do it effective. _

"_I have an offer to make..."_

Since then, everything took its course, Kid planned to put Alessio out of the way. That was nothing big for him. In the end Alessio ranged in a whole different field than the powerful mobster. Eustass Kid traced the frame of his glass with his fingertips and elicited soft sounding notes of the glassy structure that sounded like the singing of sirens. Koryuu watched his hands and their play fascinated.

"Did you find out anything new?"

The man shook his head.

"Not until now. It does not seem as he plans something big…" he replied. Kid glanced over to the blonde man named Killer, who just made a step forward.

"We do have information that Mr. Montalba plans to step in the New York drugs market and try to adopt it."

Kid just raised a hand and made the blonde come to silence.

"Mr. St. James… My information is not wrong, nor dare I doubting the intentions of your boss."

He placed the glass on the table in front of him.

"One of our informants is also missing. You should know him…" Examining the man in front of him shortly, the mobster said "His name is David."

Death of this certain person was no loss for mankind, as reluctantly as I had to admit this as I honestly thought every death of every creature was a loss. But if it depended on the game "You or I" then I decided to which was closer to me: I.

Jay and me… Well, someone couldn´t say we were friends but I pushed the reminding how we met the first time at the side. There were more important things now.

My eyes examined the two dead bodies, lying on the floor. They looked as if being cut with a huge blade. Jays Head laid chipped near a leg of the desk, the mouth opened to a silent scream that he maybe haven´t been able to do. I remembered one fact I learned someday. At a decollation the head is cut off a body so fast that death not arrives immediately. So the head, or better the eyes, still see where the head falls to and even that his body slumps down, before the thinking stops. Somehow this really was disgusting…

Even on the upper bodies of the men were cuts. It nearly looked as a dull blade had ripped out pieces of meat or its form had been unusual. I couldn´t make head or tails of it, but what I knew was, I had to act fast, really fast. Who ever had done this wanted to cause a lot harm to Alessio and it wouldn´t make me wonder if the person had already informed the police. According to my experience, the New Yorker Police wasn´t the fastest. Alessio´s mole always arranged that the reporting went on so slowly as the mills of the justice were grinding.

Fumbling the smartphone out of my pocket, I called the only number that I saved. Castor´s.

It hoots, and hoots a second time. Someone picked up the phone. One fundamental problem between the both of us was: We understood each other without words, the most time, just reacting to the body language of the other human being. That had more to do with him, than with me. Castor hated to talk and only did so, if it was essential. I dared to say most people believe he was mute (maybe better speechless?) when they met him for the first time. But he was not, by far not. I had never expected someone like him working for Alessio. The guy with his tall stature and the dark brown hair and slightly yellow eyes was intelligent. He ever had an answer to my questions, just without voicing them most of the time.

"I need your help at the Mudd Club. Take a transporter with you, park somewhere under the window… We have to clean up," I just presses out as fast and demanding as I could. Maybe he nodded, but I heard nothing. I sighed. "Just 'Hm' once if you understood," my voice asked pleadingly.

"Hm," was his reply. I just got that he had hung up when nothing else followed this long sort of answer that I got.

The first thing I did was to push the desk at a side. The carpet was a dark red one, nearly scarlet, a perfect color that ensured the blood couldn´t be seen by other eyes (was not sure with this sentence..). Well, not the blood on the ground, but the blood on the walls was a total different thing.

I don´t know the other man, hadn´t ever seen him and so I just frowned when I noticed that one arm was missing. There was no trace of the limb. But I noticed that the wounds seemed quite clean. Maybe the blade hadn´t been dull but very very sharp? But where the fuck was the goddamn arm?

My knees touched the ground as I bent down to have a better view under the desk, but there was nothing, except for a few dust balls.

While I thought frowning about what someone could do with only one arm, I heard an engine outside of the window.

Castor arrived, and actually I felt a bit relieved that I didn´t have to solve the crap alone. Scurrying to the window I peeked out. When I was finally sure that it was really him I opened the window and told him by a show of hands that I planned to throw something down. I saw him nodding and a few seconds later the door to the storage area (wasn´t sure how it´s called at a car in English) was opened.

Cautious I grabbed at the carpet with one hand and pulled at it checking. God save the craftsmens´ laziness that hadn´t glued the carpet to the ground. That could have made things more worse for me. Somehow I managed to roll Jay into the carpet and felt like a Mafiosi of some kind of old movie. Maybe it was just a grim sense of humour, or it could be the reason that I never liked Jay, but suddenly I had to smile and muttered: "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!"

Damn, I nearly collapsed from all my laughing, but asked myself if this might be the first evidences of insanity. Maybe it could also be nice to have a little padded cell, only for me. I could jump in it, and no harm would be happening to me. Like a square jumping ball in which I would be caught.

Shaking my head about that strange thinking, I lift the carpet just a little bit. First I had to check if I was able to carry such a heavy thing. Hey, I was just a girl, and maybe it would be too heavy for me.

A glance at the lower side told me that the carpet was laminated. At least that meant I didn´t had to scrub the floor under it to get it clean from any blood that might have soaked its way through it. How nice.

It would be weird if I said that there was no problem to lift up the dead body of a 6,3 feet tall guy, rolled into a carpet that was totally soaked with blood, and got it through the window. Well, I couldn´t do such thing, but what I was able to do, was grabbing one side of the roll and pulled it to the window.

Heaving him up onto the ledge was a different matter, but even this worked. Finally I managed to get the carpet, with enough effort of pushing, dragging and shoving, over the edge and huffed loudly. Damn, I shouldn´t do such stuff every day or I would die by the cause of a heart attack. A last glance outside confirmed that Castor wasn´t in my way and bingo, the load was on its way down. With a loud "whump" the carpet landed on the asphalt. I just saw how Castor rushed to let it disappear in the car. Funny enough that he had absolutely no problem with it.

Now only the second body had to get lost. My view swept from the left to the right, but there was nothing in my view that could help me. A fast rush back to the window and I signalized that I had a problem. God, I was more than happy that Castor understood so fast and also without any exchange of words. He said nothing, only moved a huge garbage can closer and I took a deep breath. A man without much talking, AND he could think, wonderful, the man of my dreams... Brushing any sarcasm aside I heaved the dead body on my shoulder and managed to get it out of the window. Again there was just a loud thud and shortly after it, the dead body was gone.

The actual problem for me was another one. I couldn´t drive with Castor and the office looked like a slum and I bet I had to scrub a lot until all the blood would be gone. Before I could think any further, I heard a knock.

Unlocking the door with my key, I opened the door quite slowly and looked directly in a serious face, surrounded with black hair. He looked so cheeky with all his freckles and automatically I had to smile. Ace seemed to be a bit worried as he stared into my face. Actually my hair was a mess, and hung disheveled into my face.

"Is everything ok?" He asked friendly and helpful.

_No, fucking nothing is ok. A few moments ago the floor was plastered with blood and two corpses which I had to get rid off. Do you even know how hard it will get to scrub the blood off of the wooden floor?_

I´d love to say that, but I can´t.

"yeah, Yes…," I said insistent. "Everything is alright."

He looked like he wasn´t quite happy with my answer. It was more than clear that I couldn´t tell him the truth… but lying was not one of my abilities. To tell the truth, I was behind the eight ball.

"Someone messed up the office… And I have to clean it. I don´t know, maybe Ales will waltz in later." It was just a try, a little stupid try. My last saving straw. Sweat was building up on my forehead, and suddenly a warm feeling laid on my hand. I blinked and looked down. Ace had laid his hand on mine and smiled so softly, nearly heartening.

„Shall I help you?" Probably I should have said ‚No' to his offer, but his heartening glance and the fact that there could be so much more awaiting me on this day made me just accept it.

_Ok girl, look him in the eyes, smile and say thanks… _a little voice murmured in the back of my head, as to make sure that I didn´t forget the most common attributes of social communication with other human beings.

"That would be," I looked up and smiled softly back, "very nice of you. I mainly need something strong to clean up…" His thumb stroked softly against my skin. Innerly I winced, but didn´t show it.

Maybe today wasn´t that bad.

"I help you," said the masculine and pleasant sounding voice. My heart made a little jump.

"Ok, under one condition," he said calmly, and I found myself not rolling with my eyes. If man came up with conditions, there was mostly nothing good coming out of it. But instead of that I just nodded, and he shot me a beaming smile. My heart misgave me.

"Ok, I get the grooming implements but for that you will go on a date with me tomorrow."

I knew there must be something…

The sponge was rubbing over the walls. Only god knew where Ace got that aggressive cleaning stuff, but I really had to put on a gasmask. Where I got that from? Very easy… I lent it from a dancer and I honestly **didn´t **want to know why she had got one. Honestly… Knowing that could shake up my world.

Even with the gasmask on, the smell bit in my nose and my eyes. But finally I did it, the office looked nearly as new and no stain could be seen.

Castor must have noticed that something was wrong as he was already gone and haven´t been waiting for me. That guy was simply awesome. If anything was wrong, then he just took care of it and I didn´t had to worry. If there were more guys like him… A deep sigh escaped my mouth.

Well, thinking about it didn´t help. A knock at the door got me out of my thoughts. I pulled the gasmask from my head and just felt how sweaty my skin got under it. The rubber gloves, reaching up to my elbows, completed the puzzle.

"I´m not in here, I am just the signature!" My calling made the other person chortle and I recognized the voice immediately. The freckle-freak was back. After unlocking the door, I took off the rubber gloves. While Ace entered and started to watch me, I just knead my warm but clammy hands. The feeling of plastic on skin couldn´t compare to anything else. It was just icky.

„Are you done?" he just asked and stared at me. A simple nod was more than an answer while he examined the room. He couldn´t notice any changes, at least, I hoped so.

At least he took the bucket of dirty water with him and left to dispose it. He was quite nice, really…

Leaving the room, I closed the door. Well, the day could only get better, right? Oh, I really thought it but then a voice screamed, shrill and squeaking.

I rushed to the origin of the voice, just to find a knob of people around her. It was one of the dancers, which should animate the audience. Well, more for the animation of the men, but they were a trademark of our club and a magnet for male visitors.

Before the woman got the possibility to scream again, and cry torrents of tears, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the room where she stood in front of.

She glanced up to me, out of watery eyes and reminded me more of an overflowing gully cover. I hated crying women, they made me feel awkward, and while I thought about the things that I might could do, they stood beside me, whimpering and whining or much better: they laid their heads on my shoulder.

In an instant my whole body started to shake. Awwww.

Anyhow, she looked so sad and I sighed again, to do something of what I hoped that I would not regret it. Putting a hand on her shoulder I heard myself say "Everything will be ok." The biggest lie of mankind. Everyone who said "Everything will be ok" normally wanted to say "Well, shit, but you have to get out of it somehow."

It was not different with me, but I felt really bad for the whole situation. Before everything could escalate more than it already had, I squared my shoulders, gulped down once and gave the whole thing a try.

"Well," I made a little fuss. Social contacts were never my favorite thing, and crying women were much more worse that the first.

"Ahem,… What happened?" She snuffled loud, while lifting up her arm and pointing behind us.

"Oh…" and I really tried to sound shocked after turning around.

Behind us there lay, no, better stood, a lonesome severed arm, positioned on a table… In a flower tub… Innerly I asked myself whoever got to such an idea.. putting an arm into a flower tub, but otherwise people, that murdered persons in the office of a mobster might have a few cans short of a six-pack.

I shoved the dancer softly to the door, to get her out.

"Just go home, tell the guys at the entrance that I sent you home. They will pay you for the whole shift…"

She tried to smile at me, which was kind of hard with her watery eyes. Very obliging I opened up the door for her, just to frooze in a second.

"Hey Cass," said a much to well known voice and I just stared into the face of a man that I knew much too well, too.

Shit shit shit SHIT!


	4. Chapter 4 meeting the state authority

**Huuuuuh. I finally managed to translate the fourth chapter, but I still don´t know if you like it or if my english is maybe to bad. Unfortunately I had no beta-reader for it. If you find any mistakes, just let me know and I will remove them. **

Chapter 4

I had been loyal and full of respect, all my life, but I called a downright crappy temperament my own. One, that often intended that I did something very stupid. Often caused of someone provoking me and surely would regret it afterwards, what at least made me regret it when Koryuu or even worse Alessio, give me a tongue-lashing. And doing so, I felt much like a little child.

Alessio was far from being dumb, a basic requirement for earning so much money as he did. But he squandered it for women, expensive cars and such similar futile crap. But the most substantial was that he was more than well known - nearly everybody in New York knew him, but there was absolutely no negative press about him. No reports about murder, blackmailing or similar stuff. Absolutely nothing. I could try and check that, sure, but I wasn´t that interested in getting to know why and where he had planted his guys into. After all I am his second-in-command and could get access to every information I needed, or better, wanted to have.

I felt strange, a little dazed, even now. Apparently it had to do with the incident of HIM reappearing. A more than displeasing fact. And so I sat here in a police station in New York and waited for an officer. Although I really didn´t care at all. Why? Oh, well that would be a legitimate question, I had to agree. I had to put it like this: I knew this man for a long time, to be more exact: since I got to New York but I didn´t want to talk about this. I wasn´t proud about myself or what I had done.

As a young girl I had stolen a lot within the first days, mainly food and at some time I was caught and BAM, Police, blue lights, police station. And then: a young, understandingly police officer.

Nothing that I had expected, but he was nice and more than just that. He allowed me to sleep a few nights in his apartment and he also made me breakfast. That was wonderful, and still I am thankful for being that kind.

That may be the reason why a huge cup of warm milky coffee was placed in front of my nose. He looked at me, how I was sitting there with my hands in cuffs in a chair and took a seat on the edge of the table. He ran a hand through his full white hair that fit him greatly. His features were distinctive and his white hair could be seen over a long distance.

He wore a white thin button up shirt under his uniform, on which he hadn´t closed the first two buttons and allowed a good view of his broad and muscular chest. As I could see, he had made some sort of career. The three stars on his uniform proved him as a bureau chief.

Smoker remained silent, but I just waited, knowing that he only gathers himself to find the words he wanted to say.

He put his cigar on a nearby ashtray and started to knead his hands, a sign of his uncomfortability.

"Cass, you know…" he started, already gets me knowing that it will be holding a harangue on me…

But I listened to him, listened how he was angered that I hadn´t hearkened to him and even how he reeled up my whole life. Anyway… I felt as if I owed him something, and therefore it was me who remained silent now.

"Cass… You are not stupid, and fuck it, you know what you got yourself into." I laid my hand slightly on his underarm to calm him down.

"Smoker… Don´t tell me you had known how the mobster life looks at the age of thirteen. Away from that I refrain to involve myself out of nearly anything…"

His glare got darker and he huffed before putting his cigar back between his lips.

"So you admit to know that Alessio Montalba is indeed a gangster? "

I smiled thoughtfully in return.

"Smoker-kun? Is this an interrogation, or just a friendly talking? "

"Rather than either," he grumbled unsatisfied and didn´t feel well with the whole matter.

I grabbed for my coffee, more rough than ready, that was sensually steaming right in front of me. Shit, I had a miserable day, too. It didn´t happen that often that I had to get rid of some dead bodies and end up finally finding an arm in a tub full of potting soil. I meant… Who did such things?

And yeah, that was the reason why I was sitting here. As the representative manager I had the responsibility of the club. Alessio didn´t show up there either.

"You´ve had been thirteen when you were here for the first time, Cass…" He stood up and I looked after him how he walked up and down in some sort of nervous manner.

"Smoker…" I began, but didn't really know what I can or should tell him.

It was him back then, saving my poor ass more than once. Fuck it; it was him who let me stay in his apartment to sleep there at night… Even if this thought distressed me again and again, I was sure that it was not a usual thing to do so. And yeah, I was very thankful for that. The, more or less, gigantic problem was that we stood on two different sides. Like at a deep canyon, him on the one, and me on the other side…

He denoted for me to be silent and tipped on the desk with his fingers.

"Let´s start with your testimony. We can settle the rest privately, too." I nodded thankfully, maybe a bit too fast, but I didn´t care at all.

"Where have you been on the 25th of April?" I closed my eyes and grumbled shortly.

"I´ve been home," I stammered, "until my boss called me that I should get to the club. I changed and made me on my way to the Mudd club. That had to be around nine pm," scratched my brain the facts together.

A Pencil stroked the paper noisily while he noted what I said.

"Where is the corpse?" he suddenly asked. But I didn´t lost my calm. The benefit of knowing a man like him for so long was pretty sure that he wasn´t able to blindside me. He wanted to make me say something stupid like: "I haven´t seen any corpse," as if that would mean that I knew of the existence of such. Smoker… you are such a cunning asshole…

Not in my back yard, darling.

I glanced up to him irritated and try to let my expression look as truly as possible.

"What corpse?" I asked back and just slightly saw how re rolled his eyes.

26.04.2012, Police station, New York City, 05:36 AM

Smoker sighed long and deeply. Finally he grabbed for the voice recorder and shut it down. He laid a hand on his face, covering his eyes before he got up.

"I think we´re done for today. I know where I can find you if I have any further questions." He waited a moment just to let me nod and shook up my tired arms. To be questioned for hours and wearing handcuffs the whole time was not on my list of my favorite occupations.

If Killer however… I shook my head wildly. GET OUT OF MY HEAD; YOU BLOND FREAK!

"Are you alright, Cass?" Smoker pulled me out of my thoughts harshly.

"Shall I bring you home?"

I waved it aside fastly. I didn´t have to tell him that I had to go to the club again, to check if everything is ok, and particularly to see if all traced had been eliminated. Indeed… Probably they had closed the club for this night. I smacked my face with my hand… Angered, tired and confused.

"Did you shut the club?" At least I had to ask, also I was curious.

He plainly nodded. Well, finally that meant my working day was over.

Slowly measuring if I should or should not take Smokers offer or if it maybe would be better to let him drive me back to the club, I closed my eyes. If I took the latter, he would see me on my motorcycle and surely ask a lot of nasty questions.

He knocked on the table impatiently and jolted me out of my thoughts while he was still looking at me. My glance met his and for an instant those truly deep and unsearchable dark eyes held me captive. My breath faltered until I dragged myself from the view that he gave me.

I watched him out of the corner of my eye how he pushed the documents together and waited a bit longer.

"That would be nice…" I muttered finally, seeing that he just gave me a short view and smiled ever so slightly that it nearly wasn´t noticeable before he sorted a few last papers into some files. There was no other opportunity than watching him doing so. How many uncountable times had I spent here? I didn´t kn-"

"Bureau Chief Smoker?"

A young officer stepped into the office. Smoker

A young policeman in uniform entered. Smoker wasted no look on the young man, and I was somehow sorry for him as he stood there angling for the attention of his master err of his Chief. „Hmmm? " Smoker hummed questioningly. Putting my head on my hand I just smiled. If one saw him then he simply made the impression of a fusty man who never smiled. But nobody saw what really lay behind. He was a good man. My look fell on his shoulders and I completely blinded out what the both were discussing.

Somehow he looked evil just now. While watching his shoulders I asked myself if he was able to fit through the door. His strong and well defined arms gave him the look of a bodybuilder or a fitness junkie than a police-officer. Well, if he chased anyone through the streets he, for sure, had no problems with his condition at all. But whom interested that? Oh, yeah… obviously me.

Finally, he got up, waved in my direction, and I know that we´ll went back down in the direction of the underground parking. There also lay the armory in which I had to deposit my weapons. At least the policemen here were not the kind of gropers like the blond from before.

Without difficulty one handed out my weapons to me which I put pack quickly in the suitable halters.

"What do you need them for? "

Now it was me who had to grin. „Well, Smoker … what do you think? I do not go unarmed to the Mudd club … Moreover, I have a gun license." He briefly smiled in response.

I bet he had already checked it up and established it was real.

It was getting late in the meantime. It was eight am in the morning and I longed for a bed. And you can bet that I didn´t care if it was mine or someone else's… Asking myself if Smoker´s bed would be comfortable, I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts fast. Was I really that exhausted? While following him back to his car and not exchanging any words, I let myself fall into the passenger seat. I tried to shift my body a bit, feeling quite uncomfortable. Hell, I was tired, crapulous, my arms hurt and damn, I just really wanted to fucking sleep.

The ride back to my home went quietly. Houses, trees and cars passed my eyes while I was just staring out of the window into the morning world. Finally Smoker´s car came to a halt at the edge of the main street and just one quick view assured me that I arrived at my home. Home… How strange that sounded. As if I liked to be there… Sure, Koryuu was not a bad flat-share partner, but it wasn´t really my home. Not at all… I could just hope that the unknown form of melancholy, that touched me deeply, was just a reason of my exhausted state.

Willing to get out, I opened the door, only to be held back by a hand on my waist.

His breathing was quiet and steady as he took a puff of his cigar, releasing the smoke shortly afterwards and muttering something under his breath, that I can´t really get. He suddenly looked up to me.

"Let´s have lunch this evening. I could pick you up…" he faltered for a moment "at eight pm. I am sure that you´re able to get a free evening out of Alessio."

I nodded in complete amazement and finally got out as he released his grip on me.

A slight red crept its way up on my cheeks. Not because I felt embarrassed, but because I realized that it was my first invitation to something like that. Chuckling slightly, before I remembered what had happened today, I strode towards the entry. In the moment I was about to step in, the memory hit me hard…

**Flashback**

_It had been a cold day in fall. Grey, rainy, and horrible stormy when he was about to do his first order together with Cass and Jay. _

_He barely knew Cass, only knew that she was somehow close to his boss. Alés, the man who´d saved his little, modest live and had been his boss since the day two years ago. Just the fact that this women was close and important to his boss, had to tell him that she was strong. There was no other woman in the higher ranks, and therefore he watched her with interest. _

_Her hair was chin-long and of a light lilac color, her eyes a flashy but beautiful green. She was a bit shorter than him, maybe about 5 ½ feet and so at least one head smaller than Jay. Her body was sporty, tight and young … but yet her feminine curves showed the existence of a woman. He often named her "Amazon" in his thoughts. Hard, cold, but truly feminine. _

_It was no big deal today, only one man who had created some stumbling blocks in the way of Alés organization and had to be eliminated._

_Having reached their destination, the three young gangsters got out of the car. Cass and Jay closed the vehicles´ doors gently and quiet. The street was as empty as the buildings that lined the cracked and broken street. It was after all not a residential area and therefore there were only little used buildings beside old and dilapidated industrial buildings causing an apocalyptic mood. _

_A ramshackled looking building with red bricks lay on the opposite side. The two other persons strode with determined steps to a door on the left side of the building. He almost had missed the entrance, as it was hidden by a large tree, standing in front of it. _

_Cass was a master of lock picking and always had her equipment with her. One grab into the middlest bag of her wide cargo pants brought up a tool that looked similar to a screwdriver. Without losing any time, she rammed the tip of the tool into the lock. She just needed a few movements of her right hand and the lock made a cracking noise. She flung the door open with her left hand and waited for Jay to step into, the other both of them following. Koryuu didn't know Jay at all, just had seen him a few times and not even exchanged any words with the guy. The silent man was more than creepy. _

_The three crept silently through the corridors until they reached a door where music could be heard behind. Cass smiled, as well as Jay. _

_Jay gained access by giving the door a strong kick. A broad grin crept over his face, but his eyes had a fanatic glint when he saw their target in front of him. _

_And then hell broke loose. Jay jumped for the other guy, who only looked at him with surprised wide eyes. He was of average age and stature. Everything on him screamed of his mediocrity._

_One kick hit his chest and sent the man to the ground. Jay didn´t gave him any time to get back to his feet. More massive kicks showered down on the ground laying man; towards his rips, head, stomach, just everything Jay could reach. _

_This kind of outbreak was nothing that Koryuu had expected. He had expected a fast death, maybe a shot through the skull or stuff like that…_

_The kind of brutality was truly new for him. Oh well, and Cass? She just stood beside him, without saying any word. A warning glare meth his glance when he decided to stop his comrade, It was a matter of seconds before her view came back to Jay again. _

"_Just end it…" She didn´t had to say more…_

_He almost put a knife out of his back pocket as if it was something naturally. He grabbed the hair of the man and pulled him up. Seeing the knife, the man started to scream, scream for his life, but nobody would come to save him._

_A large spot spread on the victim´s pants, forming a puddle on the room´s carpet. _

_Still grinning, their comrade pressed the blade very slowly on the man´s throat. With a bit more measured pressure, the blade cut stiffly through the victim´s flesh, leaving a wound so large, that he would bled to death within minutes. _

_Jay let go of the man and spit on the ground. The body itself fell on the ground, but the man was still alive. _

_Pressing his hands on the large cut, he coughed while streams of blood ran over his fingers, his hands, his arms and finally mixed with the puddle of urine on the floor. _

"_Like a bleeding pig," Koryuu thought, shocked about his own thoughts. His stomach twisted but he couldn´t give any sign of weakness in front of "them". After all this was the first order, he had been assigned to. _

_Cass lit up a cigarette and watched the dying man. She inhaled the smoke deeply into her lungs and exhaled it deliberately, mixing the smell of the smoke with the smell of the room, filled with blood, urine, and a hint of menthol. _

_The man on the ground was still twitching but his movements got slower and slower with every single second. The eyes not as wide as before he finally made his last breath and then the body went silent. He was dead. _

Koryuu let out a deep sigh as he remembered that drastic day. An outsider might have thought about a transmission of thoughts but it was plain accidentally that both persons remembered the same thing in this precise moment.

A loud crashing grabbed his attention. Koryuu heard a female voice, screaming something that he couldn´t hear clearly… "Cassidy" he muttered. The heads of the both other men rose into the air, showing a certain curiosity on their faces.

**Cassidy´s view:**

My evening had been stressful enough, or maybe I should better say my night than my evening. After everything, what happened to me in the club, this night really counted to the top two of my most hatred.

I heard myself sighing loudly as I entered the corridor. It´s eight in the morning… But until I was able to get rid of the … garbage… and the girls had been calmed it still had taken it´s time. And what sort of people does one met at such times? Yes… Old people that loved to stand at the window the whole day, noting illegal parking, watching other people and mostly: making a fuss.

The prime example was strolling towards me, wearing the same grim expression in the wrinkled face. Oh, how much I loathed that wrinkled puss…

"Miss Cassidy… I still don´t understand why you have to wear such disgusting clothing. Don´t you see what shame you are for this wonderful house?" she asked with a taunting voice and throw her gnarly arms in the air to emphasize her words. After that theatrical gesture she pointed at my battered and tattered tights. I rolled my eyes, trying to get myself a bit calmer. Sure, it was o expectable, but I didn´t feel like telling this old Grapefruit that I owed my dissolute cloth to the fact that I had to try to get two dead bodies out of a fucking window. Maybe a third one if she proceeded with her ranting…

"And anyway, your … suspect vehicle is way too loud. Couldn´t you at least try to drive more silent into the parking area? It would do us all a big favor if you would start to think about the ways you terrorize your neighbors!" Again she throwed her arms into the air. I just stared at her, absolutely flabbergasted. My… My bike WASN´T LOUD!

A twitching in the angles of my eye was very very clear. How the fuck should I be able to drive "more silent" into the parking area? She had to stand at her window as well at four am in the morning; she couldn´t be able to hear me otherwise. I didn´t told her anything of what was going on in my head.

Finally I managed to say a somehow friendly reply. "Have a nice day, Mrs. Tempura." A hand grabbed for my wrist as I turned to get to the loft, and hold me back. A dangerous flash got to my eyes.

I hated nothing more than being touched, particularly if it was done by someone whom I didn´t like…

A scratch on my leg throbbed painfully, my rips hurt like hell, in a word: it was no good idea to argue with me now, no good idea at all…

Flashing a glare at the old hag, something red clouded my view.

"Take … your… GODDAMN GNARLY, FILTHY HANDS OFF OF ME!" My voice had been determined at the beginning, but at the end I started to scream.

It looked like everything would fall out of her face as she stared at me like I was a naughty dog that had pissed on her potted plants. GOD! PLEASE show me the way to her potted plant, I didn´t had to be a dog for that!

Gasping for breath, she needed some time to regain herself.

"What are you saying, you bad lot?" she snapped. "Your dressing shows clearly what kind of things you prefer to do on a nightly base." My view went to be a blur, and I pushed past her, before I would loose the last part of my humanity. I really thought about pulling out my gun and provide her wrinkled face with a nice new little hole. In such moments I really could understand why there was murder in this world… I really did.

I went towards our door, but the old lady followed me, not stopping her nagging all the way. Right when I inserted the key into the lock, I heard her say: "If you continue with your kind of behavior I will be obliged to inform the property management, and you will be-"

"I WILL BE WHAT?" Oh great, now I yelled.

„THIS HOUSE is owned by my boss… And it´s not your fucking business what I do." While saying this, I opened the door, stepped into the flat and looked back into her dumbfounded face. "AND IF I WOULD BE FUCKING MY BROTHERS BRAINS OUT - THE WHOLE NIGHT!- IT STILL WOULDN`T BE ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS, YOU OLD BITCH!" Slamming the door shut, I got a last view how she gasped for air.

Taking a little moment to calm down, I stood there silently in the corridor, and didn´t notice the three men that stepped out of the living room to eye me up. Just when I heard "if I would be fucking my brother´s brains out – the whole night?" I looked up. I had to admit that Koryuu sounded very unbelieving to me, but as I catched his glance up, the teasing was clearly showing through.

"Don´t you think, I as your brother, should know that?" he tantalized and laughed. Eustass Kidd looked at him resolutely, but I could also see some sort of disgust in his expression. Well, incest wasn´t his thing… but maybe he only had brothers, or his sister was ugly?... I wouldn´t ask him!

"Did I miss something?" My voice sounded mostly neutrally.

"Yes," Koryuu grinned. "The Sex with me!" He laughed again, but as he looked into my tired face, he stopped instantly.

"Not a good night?" He asked suddenly and seemed to be worried. Skeptically rising one eyebrow I started to tell him my story. "Well, wait… Actually it was a fantastic night…" I smiled shortly. "First Sai beleaguered me, afterwards I nearly fell over two dead bodies in the office," emphasizing the last part with two fingers that I pushed into his face I moved on, "And while taking care of the Disposure one of the dancers started to scream… Finally I came across a flower box, holding an arm as it was growing naturally in there!" Not calming down, I gestured now with both of my arms.

"ONE ARM! IN A FLOWER BOX!"

Koryuu only nodded apathetically.

"Do you know what´s the greatest about that?" He shook his head and I threw my arms into the air desperately. "I have to date Ace AND Smoker."

The blonde and the red haired guy were still staring at me.

"Bureau Chief Smoker?" Kid asked suddenly and I couldn´t help but I got a rather unpleasant feeling… a very unpleasant feeling.


End file.
